By Tom Kleckner
Two years ago, SPP said a staff wind-integration study had found the RTO could “reliably handle” wind penetration levels of up to 60% of load with a few operational modifications. (See Study: 60% Wind Penetration Possible in SPP.)
On Friday morning, it happened. At 3:45 a.m. March 16, wind accounted for 13,928.94 MW of the system’s total load of 22,998.71 MW, a penetration level of 60.56%.
SPP said the record was among nearly a dozen it has set in the previous 90 days. Last year, it became the first North American RTO to exceed wind penetration levels of greater than 50%. Wind penetration reached as high as 56.25% in December, when SPP set its record for wind demand at 15.7 GW.
The RTO has added almost 12.5 GW of wind capacity since 2010, giving it 17.75 GW of installed wind. With the addition of another 5.3 GW that have interconnection agreements but are not yet in service, SPP’s wind capacity will exceed its minimum load of 20.42 GW. Another 35 GW of wind capacity is under various stages of review in the generator interconnection queue.
“We are continuously evaluating the development of generation resources in our footprint to ensure a safe and reliable operation,” said Bruce Rew, SPP’s vice president of operations. “As additional generation is constructed, we will compare those impacts to our forward-looking studies to ensure a reliable grid.”
At the time of the 2015 wind integration study, SPP’s wind penetration levels were approaching 39% and its record wind peak was 9,948 MW. The report recommended installing voltage reactive support capabilities for existing wind farms; enhanced operations tools to monitor real-time voltage stability limits; allowing the reliability coordinator additional flexibility in redispatching; and new planning criteria for and evaluation of phasor measurement units to provide real-time situational awareness.
Rew said the RTO has improved its wind forecasting capabilities and made “numerous” changes since 2015 through its market and reliability coordination processes.
